:strip_icc()/pic5392248.jpg)
/pic5390676.jpg)
The concept is simple: On your turn as active player, look at one of the game cards that depicts four colors from the 480 colored squares in the grid and choose one of those colors. (The co-ordinates for each color are included on the card.) Give players a one-word clue that corresponds to that color, avoiding simple color words (red, yellow, etc.) and anything in the playing area that people could see and therefore easily reference visually.
Each player in clockwise order places one of their two pawns on the board in an unoccupied space. You then give a two-word clue to your color or a different one-word clue. In counterclockwise order, players place their second token, then you place the "scoring box" on the game board centered on the chosen color and award points. If a player guessed the color exactly, they score three points; if they were within one space, two points; and if they were within two spaces, one point.
:strip_icc()/pic5392167.jpg)
In the image above, yellow scores 3 points, while black and purple each score 1 point. You as the clue giver — or "cue giver" in the game's terminology — score 1 point for each pawn in the box. Each player serves as cue giver one to three times depending on the number of players, and whoever scores the most points wins.
I've played Hues and Cues five times on a review copy from The Op, twice with three players and thrice with four, and I preferred having a larger player count as you had more competition on the game board and more times to guess! Of course you could simply play more rounds if you want more guessing, or you could play to a certain point total as long as all players had the same number of turns.
:strip_icc()/pic5392202.jpg)
Terrible guessers — or terrible cue giver?
We played with the normal rules a couple of times, but we also experimented with storytelling and poetic clues, so instead of saying only "Pumpkin", we'd say, "Last week I went to pick up a box at the old house that had been mailed there by mistake, and the new owners still had a pumpkin on their porch. A soft, clearly rotting pumpkin, but a pumpkin nonetheless. What color is that pumpkin?"
I understand the challenge of the game being to convey or suggest colors with few words, and my story isn't much more than saying "Pumpkin" in a slightly longer manner, but we all enjoyed being able to add nuance to the short clues. Aside from that, we'd often use our second clue to further embellish the story — or we'd use our clues to continue the story told by the previous player: "Lisa got so excited by that giraffe she saw that she decided to make a cake to celebrate it, but she mistakenly added pomegranate juice to the icing mix, so the cake wasn't the color she had expected."
So much better!
Designer Scott Brady commented on my video overview of the game and said that storytelling has often been present in how people approach the game:
Quote:
We also experimented with categories (only name Marvel characters, etc.) and it is a lot of fun to play that way as long as all players have a good knowledge of the subject. Some of the categories we found most fun are cartoon characters, logos (brands), sports teams, school colors and believe it or not, automobiles. (People are fanatics about what color that old Ford was.) We also experienced players trying to call out Pantone colors when it was groups of graphic designers!
I also appreciated the storytelling as my brain had trouble bringing up suggestions for a color in a single word, reverting to foods over and over again. (Similarly, I can't recall the colors of the rooms in my house outside of the hallway connecting the bedrooms; I just looked in the kitchen and was surprised to find it the same color as the living room.) With storytelling, I can make something up more easily, and I get to enjoy what others have created outside of — or rather in partnership with — the game experience, an aspect that Hues and Cues shares with many fine party games.For more thoughts on the game, check out this overview video:
:strip_icc()/pic5389251.jpg)
/pic5080131.png)
:strip_icc()/pic5350626.jpg)
:strip_icc()/pic5376429.jpg)
/pic4887376.jpg)
